10 office etiquette that will help grow respect and politeness at work

Everyday conversations, greetings, excuses and assertion in formal and informal routines is what we do every day as part of our day to day activities, ranging from office and back home, from the white collars employees to the blue collar workers on the work floor, and not omitting those people that are neither white nor blue collar workers, in fact from every sphere of life we encounter and engage in interpersonal conversations either in the formal or informal contexts. I can wholly say and everyone knows it that most of the conversations we have every day as a typical Nigerian living in a city like Lagos or the prestigious Abuja or other ethno generic cities in Nigeria are informal conversations. At times we do forget that we are in formal settings and we still gesture the informal words; although it is mostly unnoticed, as in this part of the world we don’t really care about what you say or how you say it, as far as it is helpful. That is why I compile this list of 10 things behaviors, gestures and assertions that is often done wrongly in an official platform

      1.  Colloquial words

A typical citizen will send a mailed message or even start a conversation with laid back or colloquial words such as “hey you guys”, “yo” or “hi”, this combinations of colloquialisms are informal in nature. A simple “hello” is enough to send across the attention you so seek.

      2.     Introductions

In a situation whereby you are entrenched with the responsibility of making the introduction and announcement of a visitor or even a slight introduction of a higher ranked personnel to a lower ranked employee; who knows, people often do the introduction the wrong way, if not done well you might have offended someone even without you knowing. In introducing people to each other its just ethical to present the person of the lower rank to the person of higher rank

        3.      Greetings

In a formal setting some people like to be strictly be addressed the formal way and even if that business associate, elder or other acquaintance are to  be addressed by you, my advice is to stick to the formal greeting ethic, unless you are instructed to do the greetings the informal way which I think cannot even happen. It send a great message to the person whom you are addressing, that you are serious and respectable and strict when it comes to business.

          4. Helping hands

Helping people and being helped is what we engage in, in our everyday routines either in the official hours of the day when we are at the office or the informal hours after work. While you could easily be offended when you offer to help someone in an informal context, which is just about normal; in a formal frame it is not polite to be offended when your offer to help is turned down. If he or she rejects your help feel munificent to say”please feel free to inform me if you have a change of thoughts”.

               5. Speech politeness

Informal ambiance such as home and hookups with friends and family are just about places where you can make use of code mixing techniques, filler words, slangs and informal registers, but “let give ceaser what’s ceaser’s” is what the old adage says, in an official situation feel obliged to speak  politely, keep the tempo of your voice as down as could politely be and make sure to avoid gossips and false conversations during the hours of work; it will only command respect and good manners in the workplace.

               6. Workplace drama

You could actually be the most finial and discreet person at you workplace, the work floor drama is kind of inevitable to the tune that if you decide to not annoy people, you do not know who might feel bad and gross about you and as well as you will want to keep your self-worth high to avoid been took for granted. To reply a direct jibe from a co worker, the best way to confront him or her is by email; why? It is actually because the email will allow you to pour out your mind on anything you might not feel good about and also avoid any face to face faceoff that could be gross. Secondly emails allow the other person to have a copy of your thoughts in his or her archives.

                 7. Interruption management

 People do value conversation in a high manner especially in an official workplace, and urgency has been around for as long as can be, sometimes we get so entwined with urgency that we forgot our etiquette and that could become ugly when we interrupt a valuable conversation. So to avoid that, I recommend that no matter the urgency of the news you might want to deliver a managed and polite form of interruption to a conversation, i.e. “excuse” is as valuable as gem at that moment.

                8. Privacy

People do enjoy their piece of privacy being strictly respected and some people might be pissed off if their privacy is being infringed on. So in an official setting using a cell phone, maintain a privacy range as people are not interested in your conversation and if you are to be beside someone having a telephone conversation keep and maintain a reasonable distance, it shows you are respectable and if you are in a conference, make sure your phone is kept at bay to abate interruptions.

               9. Intrusion

Looking into someone else’s computer or mobile phone in a workplace or a formal office could as well be one of the most demeaning offences a co worker. Keep your distance , make sure to inform him or her before barging into his or her privacy. Not doing so could make the respect being given to you crash or demean and you could afterwards be tagged awkward.

              10. Eatables

Considering a snack after a long day of work or briefly taking a coffee after a stressful work trend is always inevitable and it is just normal when done appropriately. But some people do go great lengths to chew and pop gums at the workplace which is totally contrary to the workplace etiquette. 

posted by MW

SPACE ACTIVITIES IN NIGERIA

The timeline of the nigerian space programes

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We often hear about many top countries launching space programs as well as having many satellites that monitors and delivers information for them globally. But few Nigerians actually know anything about  any space programs Nigeria has actually undertaken and even fewer will find it difficult to believe the fact that Nigeria’s satellites was implemented in monitoring the security of the nation during the 2015 polls as well as monitoring agricultural production and food the security in the region.

For those Nigerians who actually know little about the Nigerian space programs or somehow think Nigeria has no satellite in orbit here is a list of 10 facts in the timeline of the Nigerian space programs:

• Nigeria has been operating its own personal  satellites since the year 2003

• Nigeria’s first satellite was launched by the national spaced research and development agency[NASRDA] IN 2003 and was given the Nigeria-sat1.it costs about 13 million dollars and was paid by the Nigerian government, but was constructed by the surrey space technology[sst] in the united kingdom and was launched into orbit from the Russian space port.

• The Nigeria-sat1 was equipped with high resolution cameras and are3vsaid to look at agricultural production and food security in the country.

• The Nigeria-sat1 lasted until 2012 and defiled the four years expectation which was due to last until 2008.

• It was succeeded by the Nigeriasat-2 and Nigeriasat-x, which both launched into orbit in 2011 was equipped with similar instruments and are also made at the SST, with Nigerian engineers helping in the construction of the sat-x.

• Another mission was added to the Nigeriasat-2 and the sat-x previous environmental missions, the spacecrafts will provide high resolution images for security ahead of the general election in 2015.

• The Nigerian SATs with other network of satellites including Chinese, Spanish, and the United Kingdom spacecrafts are parts of the international disaster monitoring constellation by the SST.

• The Nigeria-sat1 became the first satellite to send back pictures on the Hurricane Katrina, when it broadcast pictures of the east coast of the united states following the deadly hurricane, it orbiter also assists with imagery contributions to aid workers  following the 2004 indian ocean tsunami.

• In 2007 the Nigcomsat-1 a communication satellite was built by the Chinese and was commissioned By the [NASRDA] and was launched in china. It lost power in 2008, and was replaced by the Nigcomsat1-R in 2011, and currently aid broadcast and internet services in the country.

The circle through life

"I am at the middle of a ROAD;
The ROAD that lead to my house;
The HOUSE that defines my home;            HOME that gives me satisfaction; SATISFACTION that emanates into hapiness;
HAPPINESS that brings motivation;
MOTIVATION in my work;
WORK that makes us survive;
SURVIVAL that gives us authority;
AUTHORITY that spurs elevation;
ELEVATION that create self actualization."
  Note:Anadiplosis,   #holla_certified

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT ACTUALLY RAIN "ANIMALS"

The mystery of animal raining

    

   Imagine what you will do while driving in a whizzy rain and  a sudden thump on your trunk caught your attention,  and on getting down from the vehicle you discover the intruder on your trunk was a fish that falls from the sky, and as you look more closely to have a better  understanding of the matter all you could discover is fishes dropping from the sky. The occurrence in this little illustration has been common in our general society where mostly fishes and other aquatic animals could be seen plummeting from the sky. The first recorded incident of animals falling from the sky was first experienced in Greece in the year 200Bc when a shower of frogs took the Greek by surprise. since then similar occurrences has been experienced as the timeline of history passes by up until today which gives the phenomenon many meanings across civilization, ranging from the Yoruba people believing the replica of those aquatic animals exists in the clouds to supernatural and superstitious believes you cannot even imagine.
The culprit 
Ranging from catfishes and snails in Nigeria, vulture’s poop in America, tadpoles in Japan to spiders in Brazil; the most plausible theory on what could cause this funny occurrence is what is called a tornadic waterspout, since most of the animals involved in this incidents are aquatic animals, the blame is shifted on this form of tornado which forms in the middle of the ocean. Tornadic waterspout is seen as a column of air that gathers overland and then spin over the sea. This tornado is strong enough to suck up small and weightless objects in its way and then carry them along in its journey of about 100 miles. Once the tornado losses its energy in a little time which it could have travelled about 100miles, the objects   will then start falling and to be frank that could actually looks like its raining fishes or whatever got caught up in the whirlwind.
  To give a little taste of adventure, the following 5 most stunning incidents of animal raining could blow off your Hat.                                                                                                                                                                                                     
                                                                        Frogs in Kansas                                                               1873, a frog-fall smote Kansas City; ditto for Dubuque,
Iowa, in 1882. What was puzzling in both of those cases
was that there were no bodies of water nearby. Experts
theorized the Kansas City event was due to a tornado
elsewhere that had carried the frogs to the city. Scientists
studying the Dubuque case similarly believed the frogs were
sucked up by a powerful wind, then encapsulated into hail
before being dumped onto the unsuspecting citizens of
Dubuque. More recently, in 2005, thousands of frogs fell
from the sky into a town in Serbia. This frog-dumping
occurred during a powerful storm, which a Serbian
climatologist said was the reason behind the event .
The explanation of fish falling mas as well fit with this frog incidents but, it could also be that the fact that residents are so extrapolated at the occurrence that they may mistake an incident of frogs massively leaving their habitat after a cool rain and they were suddenly seen all every where, with the issue of animal falling when actually the frogs hopped to your yard on their own.
Vulture poop in Kentucky
The year was 1876. The town: Olympia Springs, Kentucky.
One Mrs. Allen Crouch was outside, minding her own
business, making soap, when large flakes of meat drifted
down around her. They looked like beef . The sky was clear,
which puzzled Mrs. Allen Crouch all the more. The flakes,
roughly 2 inches by 2 inches (5 centimeters by 5
centimeters), coated the ground and stuck out of the
fencing. Mrs. Crouch, smart woman that she was, left them
there. Two men stopped over a day or so later, when the
flesh chunks were now dried and spoiled. They ate some
(Ish!!!) and described the flavor as that of mutton or venison
.
Samples of the “meat” were taken and analyzed. One report
by a Leopold Brandeis, published that year in Scientific
American, said the substance was nostoc — a freshwater,
blue-green algae often found in moist places in jellylike
colonies. Typically smaller in size, Brandeis said this
nostoc must have swollen with water when it rained down
upon the Crouch household. The only problem was that it
wasn’t raining that day. So it couldn’t have been nostoc
.
Luckily other scientists received samples and did additional
analyses. The consensus, published in the American
Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science , was that they
were a mix of cartilage, muscular tissueand lung tissue.
But what was that tissue from, and why did it rain down on
Mrs. Crouch? We’ll never know for sure. L.D. Kastenbine, a
professor of chemistry in the Louisville College of
Pharmacy, claimed the substance — which he confirmed
was a mix of connective and fatty tissues and muscular
fibers — was the stomach contents of a bunch of vultures
who projectile-vomited it when flying over the Crouch
residence. (The two vulture species found in Kentucky do
sometimes barf as a defensive measure, or to lighten
themselves for flight.) This was not Kastenbine’s own
theory; he said he heard it from “the old Ohio farmer,” but
clearly it was “the only plausible theory” . Sounds good (and gross) to us.
“Yellowish rain” in Hmong.                                

Doctors tending to patients during the yellow rain in asia

The Hmong coined the term “yellow rain” in the 1970s,
following the communist victories in Southeast Asia. Back
then, the new regimes were angry with the Hmong, who had
been allies of the U.S. and fought against them. In 1975,
the Hmong began reporting they saw an oily, yellow liquid
falling from aircraft . The liquid sounded like rain when it hit
the roofs of their houses, which led them to dub it “yellow
rain.”
Soon after, the Hmong suffered a myriad of health issues,
including seizures, blindness and bleeding from the nose.
Some even died. Yellow rain was also reportedly dropped
on the Afghans who fought the Soviet Union’s invasion in
1979, and on Khmer tribes in Cambodia around the same
time [sources: Schneider, Inglis-Arkell ].
So what is yellow rain, exactly? The U.S. government
investigated and accused the Soviets of using trichothecene
mycotoxins, a poison made from a fungus that can be used
as a biological weapon. (The Russians denied their
involvement). On the other hand, many scientists, even
some American ones, said it could be the feces of giant
Asian honeybees swarming through the air in large
numbers. Or else, bee poop tainted with a fungus. When the
yellow rain dried, it became a dust that contained pollen.
Given the geopolitical implications of yellow rain, the source
may remain in dispute for a long time [sources: Schneider ,
Inglis-Arkell ].
Red-winged blackbird in Oregon.                     

About 5,000 red-winged blackbirds rained down from the
skies in Arkansas late on Dec. 31, 2010, most of which
were dead or dying. A few days later, a similar event
happened in Louisiana, involving some 500 red-winged
blackbirds. Some people would say hundreds — and
certainly thousands — of birds falling from the sky must be
very unusual. Not as much as you might think. A
representative from the U.S. Geological Survey’s National
Wildlife Health Center said over the last three decades,
there have been 16 incidents where more than 1,000 red-
winged blackbirds simultaneously died, falling from the sky
like rain . What’s going on?
In both of the cases mentioned, the birds showed signs of
acute trauma . The Louisiana birds were found near a power
line; experts say the creatures may have been ill or startled,
flew into the power line, then plunged to their deaths. In the
Arkansas case, the birds were deemed to have died midair.
Since it was New Year’s Eve and fireworks were exploding
in the skies, the theory is that the birds were startled and
panicked, flying into homes, cars, each other and even
straight into the ground .
Why red-winged blackbirds in both cases? They’re one of
the most common bird species in the U.S., with some 200
million in residence. They also fly in close proximity to one
another and have poor eyesight .
Fish-rain in lousiana, new orleans

While it’s certainly not common for the skies to rain down
fish, it has actually happened in more than one spot around
the globe. In 1947 in Marksville, Louisiana, a variety of fish
began falling from the heavens: largemouth black bass,
goggle-eye, hickory shad and two types of sunfish. The
fish, 2 to 9 inches (5 to 23 centimeters) in size, were falling
as closely as one fish every square yard (1 square meter).
More recently, in 2010, hundreds of spangled perch fell on a
small town in the Australian Outback on two consecutive
days. The small, white fish, common in this northern part of
Australia, were alive when they hit the ground. Locals say
this same phenomenon happened in 2004 [sources: Nobel,
News Corp Australia ].
What explains it? Scientists say tornadoes or the updrafts
common with thunderstorms can be powerful enough to lift
fish out of the water as they swirl over lakes or seas, then
carry them long distances before releasing them when the
updrafts lose steam. Waterspouts can snatch and carry fish
as well. They can fly along at a 100-mile-per-hour (161 kph)
clip, which is certainly strong enough to suck up and carry
some fish . No one can
say for certain whether one of these phenomena caused the
above-noted fish-falls. But it certainly seems plausible. #FFF

A PEEK AT LAGOSIANS

If I were not to be a lagosian or I happened to be born and raised outside Lagos in which I seldom hear about lagos like a whisper from afar, I will not have possessed the sense of humor I have about Lagos and colossal multi-ethnicity; the people, the city, the culture, the norms, the general way of life will feel strange to me and maybe a little whacked or odd when I eventually come to the city.

Technically a tourist visiting Lagos for the first time or for fewer times will think of Lagos in another dimension and not until he or she stayed and understands the way of the lagosian when he will now understand why lagosian do what they do. In my own perspective Lagos is the most unique state in Africa! Why?  Because Lagos is a multi-cultural city that have at least a taste of every type of people in Africa! Isn`t  that awesome, not done yet , Lagos city boast at least a big number in all kind of people no matter how you wish to categorize them; and that at times  gives me goose bumps on how the government has managed to unite this people of diverse everything  into a beautiful ly working mega city like Lagos.

As a visitor who wishes to visit a mega supermarket in Lagos like Shoprite or an ict centre like slot you should not be anything but amazed when you see this three different kind of people because that is how we have fun here:

• The onlookers:  just imagine an able youth dressing up on a Saturday morning just for the purpose of    going to the supermarket to evaluate different kinds of gadgets and wares which people are buying. These guys will know the different prices of all the expensive stuffs people are buying, even though they might not buy more than bottled water. Not to gluttonize but just to catch fun on a Saturday when   there is no work.

• The rich freaks: this guys flaunt  their ego  when buying a shoe at Shoprite or a phone at slot or microstation respectively  by making everyone aware of the bad response directed to him or her by the attendants   when he want to buy an iphone or an expensive stuff. The show is just to differentiate himself from the onlookers and secondly to show he really want to buy an expensive stuff

• The selfie freaks: this people are mostly ladies whose only mission to the supermarket is to snap selfies in order to disturb facebookers and oppressing their friends at home.

This is just the lagosian youth you may find at a big supermarket.

I carefully observe Lagosian and upon our multi diverse way of life, I summarize the lagosian people into five informal and unofficial groups and they are as follows:

THE EGO: meeting this people this people for the first time you will be oppressed, why? Because they are no doubt rich and if you ever feel like having your fill of looking at this people  then you will have to visit the other side of the lagoon although  they also exists in abundance in the Lagos mainland also, but the striking difference between this people and other rich kids is simple; they try to tell you their worth in material and bodily  essence by going online and telling the world how much they really worth by posting pictures of their cars and wardrobe on face book and twitter with different ashtags all to the purpose of telling us that they are rich.

THE GOOD: As a visitor, if you are lucky to meet this category of people on your first visit, then  you may have to have a re-think about your believe if you are an atheist or your  behavior if you are the partying type, why? Because they are the churchgoers and mosque goers, this people are suppose to be the disciple of jesus Christ and prophet Muhammad respectively, the stunning difference between this people and other religious people in other places in Nigeria is that they are unbelievably nice that even if you spat stagnant water on their Sunday dress their Sunday dress they kindly settle for an apology  from you, this people would not pick up a fight  with you for unreasonable or immature reasons, they  gently return back to their family after the day’s work and even if you live with them in a “face-me-i-face-you”[ a type of building in Nigeria common in the rural areas] you will hardly know them, the reason for their coolness  ranges from personal experiences and introversions.

THE BAD: BAD! this people are not said to be bad because of their harmful behaviors, but because of their SWAGS, here they are, the reason why Nigerians is tagged happy people. They are guys or ladies who maybe doing teaching job of #7500 monthly or the Indian factory works that pays #13700 per month, they might also be sole workers who graduated from being an apprentice, and are usually paid on contract basis. What will amaze you about this people is that despite the fact that they are earning relatively low, they know all the clubs in their area, and if you are to find them at a club on Friday they may probably be drinking one magic moment or flaunting one bottle of André for the whole night. They recognize all the latest designer kits and you can see them differentiating between a fluke and an originals, even though they might be putting on the grade 1!.They are the ones the EGOS are trying to oppress.

THE HUSTLERS:  the hustlers comprises of club mongers  in ladies and hardcore workers in guys, they work 12 hours every day at a factory or anywhere hustles transfer them, simply because they translated the popular saying “hard work pays” as “hard labour pays” , they are the so called bus

“conductors” that collect money in the commercial bus, that can be so violent due to harshness of their job and the influence of another people from the same category, the same industry but different profession, they are the” Agberos”; this “Agberos” will violently tug it off with the conductors bus stops by bus stops demanding royalty from the conductors and that often create reflection in the behaviors of the conductors towards the passengers.

THE SCHOLARS [arguers]: I called them scholars because of the place you will find them and what you will likely find them does. This people wake up in the morning and on their way to work, they will surely branch at the nearest newspaper vendor where people of similar interests have been waiting, evaluating the news of the day band that is normal, what interests me is that one of them will suddenly start an argument and there comes the first assignment of the day, the argument will then start trending from sport to entertainment and showbiz. These serious arguments often make some of them going for interviews or meetings arrive late because they got really carried away. The habit of this arguments does not only reflect in the morning only, but again when they are stuck In the traffic jam on their way coming back from work  and at a U turn another vehicle mistakenly hit their vehicle, by so, be prepared for a show of English language debate and quiz. These fervent arguers will make you suffer and blame the government for traffic jam   by engaging in tug “o” words instead of settling the rift amicably. And the funniest part is that if you are unlucky to be riding on the commercial shuttle then you will be sweating by then and the fact that the arguer`s car maybe equipped with  air conditioner and they both will unknowingly keep the innocent people in the commercial  bus sweating and suffering.

Never be left out of a chance for a show in Lagos when encountering these five types of people. Even though there are still other people that are not mentioned, there are as many as up to hundred different types of surprises Lagosian can pull off. #FFF